25. Lawn Terrace & Villa

Proposed Springside Villa Design by Calvert Vaux,
Archives & Special Collection, Vassar College

WALKING TOUR

25. LAWN TERRACE & VILLA

“On completing the Circle, we come to the Villa Site, and Lawn Terrace on the right. Let us climb the bank of greensward. How pretty is this semicircular lawn, ten feet above the carriage-way, and fringed with young pine and spruce trees. Twenty or thirty feet higher is the Villa Site, on which Mr. Vassar contemplated building a residence for himself and family.”

— Benson J. Lossing, Vassar College and Its Founder, 1867

Vassar’s “villa” was designed by Calvert Vaux, but never constructed as Vassar and his wife preferred living in the gardener’s cottage. In 1929, a private home called “Spring Gable” was built on the site intended by Downing for Vassar’s “villa”.

SITE LOCATION:
185 Academy Street
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
845.454.2060

HOURS:
Dawn Until Dusk

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Hudson River Valley Greenway

The Springside Walking Tour is funded, in part, by a grant from the Hudson River Valley Greenway.

The land that now comprises Springside is part of the homelands of the Munsee Lenape, Indigenous peoples who have an enduring connection to this place.

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Springside Landscape Restoration, a 501c3 not-for-profit organization, owns and stewards Springside.
Mail to: P.0. Box 4915, Poughkeepsie, NY 12602